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CMOs, agency CEOs, young creatives and ad-tech execs from around the globe convened on the French Riviera last week for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014. The week-long festival, now in its 61st year, historically a showcase of global advertising creativity, has in recent years become a destination for chief marketers seeking to learn more about the myriad awards bestowed on entries, as well as represent their own companies as centers for innovation and ideas. Although overall attendance was reportedly down this year, as were CMOs, many marketers still did make the trek to the Palais des Festivals and the hotels along the Boulevard de la Croisette to network and get ideas from award-winning work. They also came to learn about new technologies driving marketing effectiveness. Indeed, the ad-tech community was more present than ever, companies like Google and Microsoft and Ace Metrix and Turn pitching branded tents along the beach. To some, the ad-tech presence brought an unwelcome trade-show atmosphere. Still, CMOs told me they found value in being able to see what the next “next” is in the quiver.

Boundaries Continue to Fall. Open-source collaboration (never mind the redundancy in that term) is where it’s at. So they say. It used to be that going to Cannes for agency execs meant keeping their clients shielded from the onslaught of pitches from other agencies. Today the talk, at least, is about keeping clients close while allowing them to visit with other agency partners in the spirit of collaboration and benefit for all. And agencies are aiding their clients in partnering with other clients on their rosters.

The Definition of Creative Excellence is Nebulous. This is in flux. As advertising becomes only more complex and difficult to manage, winning ideas become harder to articulate. Cannes Lions awards categories continue to multiply; for example, this was the first year for the Product Design category. Superiority becomes relational, context-dependent. So what won at Cannes? “Big themes, big emotions, stories,” said Tham Khai Meng, worldwide chief creative officer and chairman of the WW Creative Council at Ogilvy & Mather, adding that people mustn’t confuse platforms with creativity.

Awards Find New Relevance?Controversy around ad-industry awards aside, as one agency executive explained to me—and CMOs admitted—they come to see ideas so good that they “make me angry that I didn’t do it,” said PJ Pereira, chief creative officer at Pereira & O’Dell. In a social media-driven world, creative power has become an issue for advertisers as well. The CMOs I spoke with said they like to see what wins because they get inspired. Certainly, what wins and what doesn't is not based on absolute and completely empirical science, but it can be motivational to see what the world brings--even if the ideas, as many are, are not entirely practical. And so, as clients come to understand the awards and what they represent, the festival has become less a purely self-congratulatory event. To be sure, in an era of business focus, an Effie has become the award to win for many.

Data Drives Creativity—But How? As discussed at a MediaLink Daily Dose panel discussion, “Data-magination,” data is increasingly the partner of creativity, increasing opportunities and effectiveness. But data alone does not equal insight or information. Human insight informs data, and vice versa. And reliance on data as prescriptive, informing next moves, must not crowd out an openness to unchartered—and intuition-driven—initiatives.

Talent Struggles Persist. If anything, this challenge, on both client and agency sides, is intensifying. But while I expected agencies to tell me that the Googles and Facebooks of the world are the main competition for great talent, more than one told me that in fact it was other agencies that were the draw.

Participatory Content Is Key. It’s not enough anymore to create content that just tells a great story. It now must be participatory, something with which consumers can truly engage. Social drives that participation, of course, but people share something only when they get an emotional charge from it.

Young Leadership Equals Future Growth? Marketers and agencies alike are increasingly turning to younger people to drive their organizations forward, hiring them not just for rank-and-file jobs, but for high-level leadership positions.

Less Is More. Enough, it seems, is enough. At least a few marketers explained to me that they are realizing that less is more when it comes to content and platforms. They’re overwhelmed with the number of options and platforms for brand engagement, but they are being selective the platforms they use and scaling back on the amount of content they are producing—trying to pack more punch in smaller doses.

Are CEOs the New CMOs? CEOs—and COOs, and CIOs, and CFOs—continue to be involved in more discussions around brand value and marketing and even creativity, as marketing finds its rightful place in organizations as a—non-siloed—business driver. As marketers continue their efforts to develop innovation centers, with media innovation becoming as important as product innovation, and digital becoming a top-down rather than bottom-up initiative, expect more involvement from C-suite power players in all things advertising, marketing and brand.